


Best kept secret

by MsPeppernose



Category: Bandom, Fall Out Boy
Genre: M/M, No actual sex, Peterick, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-24
Updated: 2014-11-24
Packaged: 2018-02-26 21:16:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2666612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsPeppernose/pseuds/MsPeppernose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pete and Patrick have been secretly together for a little while now. They go to dinner with the rest of the band and the waitress is very much into Patrick.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Best kept secret

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt:  
> Imagine person A and person B are secretly dating within their group of friends. One night the entire group eats at a restaurant when the waiter/waitress begins to flirt with person A. Person B begins to get jealous, but they can’t say anything as to not blow their big secret. How does person A and person B react within the situation?
> 
> From OTP Prompts on tumblr

"The food there is supposed to be great." Pete absentmindedly rubs his belly as if hoping food would appear in there soon. He's goddamn starving, practically wasting away. He turns from lying on his back to facing Patrick. He's been in bed for the better part of the day with Patrick and he's trying to convince himself to get up. It's not really working.  
"I don't even care if it's that good," Patrick stretches out in the bed and lines his body up next to Pete's, "I just need food. Non-descript food. Sustenance. I'm not sure I care if it's good anymore. I haven't eaten since breakfast. I don't think coffee counts as lunch."  
"I know. And we've worked up a decent appetite today, I think." Pete wiggles his eyebrows and Patrick grins at him. Pete is certain they could stay in bed and call the pizza place and that would fill their tummies, and then they wouldn't have to move further than to the front door. He wouldn't even have to put pants on.

They are invited to a dinner at a very swanky, up-and-coming restaurant. And by invited, Pete knows that they don't actually have a choice. One of those required evenings that are sort of necessary so as not to become a hermit. It's a dinner with the rest of the band as well as management and a few record company people. It's just to touch base, so that everyone can check in with the plan for the coming months. They have to go. Pete doesn't want to go though, and he definitely doesn't want to get dressed or leave his house. They just need to show up, spend a polite amount of time there, make excuses and leave. And it might be fun. Maybe.

Pete's smile drops for a second when he remembers the thing that's been bothering him since being told about the dinner. "Do you think people will know? About us, I mean?" 

He and Patrick have been a thing for about six weeks now, but a secret thing. There was some messing around when they were on tour, just sleepy kisses pressed against each other in bunks, and a few fervent, secret make out sessions back stage but not much more. When the tour had finished and things wound down a bit, they could breathe and digest everything. It became more. Much, much more. But Patrick had suggested that they keep it to themselves for a while to see how it played out. Pete had happily agreed, knowing all too well how easy it is for the world to get its nose into a relationship and potentially put unnecessary pressure on it. They didn't need that.

"Nah. I don't think so. How would they? Unless you're planning on feeling me up in front of everyone, right at the table?" Patrick jokes with a slight raise to his eyebrow.  
The smile reappears on Pete's face.  
"And if that's exactly what I was planning?" He rolls closer to Patrick and slides his fingers down Patrick's chest. He presses a kiss to Patrick's mouth and Patrick sinks into it, kissing back easily. Pete very much doesn't want to go to dinner anymore. "Why don't we stay here instead?"  
"We can't."  
"We could. We could be jerks."  
"Come on, Pete. We have to. You know we have to."  
"I don't wanna go. Would rather stay here." Pete whines. He tries again to entice Patrick by snuggling up to close and kissing along his jaw. "You're so gorgeous, Trick," he coos, hoping he's starting to convince Patrick. Patrick seems to have the will of a horse though, because he stops Pete with a finger to his lips.  
"Don't be a brat. Come on."

Pete promptly sticks his tongue out at Patrick. He slides out of bed and heads to the shower, but only grudgingly. What's the point in being a grown up with a hot sort-of-boyfriend if you can stay in bed with him forever?

*

Pete and Patrick arrive together. But not before Pete manages to convince Patrick to join him in the shower. Pete is in a slightly better mood now, though that's mostly to do with his post-orgasmic glow and the promise of food. He still wants to stamp his feet and pout about having to leave his previously Patrick-filled bed though.

The restaurant itself is low lighting and all the furniture is cream and beige. The walls are bright white, with garish art that could either be sheer artistic brilliance, or be done by a five year old. Who can tell? The decor seems to be aiming for opulence, but Pete thinks it looks like it's trying just a little bit too hard. It's nice, but there's so many restaurants that look like this that Pete's not too impressed. Though he might have already decided that it would never be perfect seeing as it's the reason for him not being at home and curled around Patrick. It's possible he was never going to like the restaurant for that simple fact. The food had better be amazing to make up for it.

Pete watches the waitress as she makes her way around the table and takes their orders. She's friendly and attentive to everyone, and seems to be good at her job. She smiles sweetly at Patrick when she gets to him, and brushes her hair from her face as she takes his order. She stumbles over her words and asks him to repeat his drink order, mesmerised when he smiles back at her. She seems completely into him and she's blushing like crazy, a telltale flirty flush in her cheeks. Patrick glances over at Pete as the waitress walks away and he gives Pete a little awkward smile. Pete grins back. The waitress can make eyes at him all she wants, Patrick is totally hot and he's all Pete's.

"Patrick, she was totally into you." Joe comments and it grabs the attention of both Pete and Patrick.  
"Was she?" Patrick mumbles as fidgets in his seat a bit. Pete kinda loves seeing Patrick like that; shy and embarrassed and a bit flustered. It's pretty adorable. He's always been terrible at taking a compliment or accepting attention, especially from a pretty guy or girl. Pete knows this, it's the way Patrick reacts to Pete's advances when he's caught off guard. Patrick gets attention all the time, and rightly so. He's just oblivious to it.  
"Yeah, she was all over you. Watch when she comes back!"  
"Whatever. She was just being polite. Like most wait staff are. You know, to get a bigger tip?"  
"Nah," Joe continues, "she was so into you." Patrick flushes and ignores him.

The waitress is all over Patrick again, blushing and smiling at him when she returns with their drinks. Joe doesn't say anything, Pete just watches him give Patrick a knowing look of 'I told you so', and nothing more. 

Pete's sitting beside Patrick which is completely normal even before they were anything other than bandmates and friends (or soul mates as Pete decided a long time ago), they've been practically joined at the hip for years. 

It's possible that Pete has been a little bit spoiled lately. For the past few weeks he's been able to touch and kiss Patrick as much as he pleases without a second thought, because they've had so much private time together. It's a lot harder to keep his hands to himself now that they are in public. But he mostly behaves himself, even if he has wanted to grab Patrick's fingers and hold his hand while chatting to Andy all evening. Keeping things secret from everyone, even from their friends, was a good idea at the time but it's harder in practice. It's definitely hard when he wants to rest his palm high on Patrick's thigh, or press his lips close to Patrick's ear and whisper that yes, in fact the waitress was hitting on him, because yes, in fact Patrick looks hot as hell tonight. But he holds back, he knows it's not worth letting the cat out of the bag just yet. And he's getting a little thrill knowing that only he and Patrick know something that no one else on the planet know. Though he feels like if he doesn't touch Patrick at all, it will set off alarm bells with the guys. Maybe he's over thinking it, but Pete is always so tactile with everyone, especially with Patrick. So he makes some small physical gestures like resting his elbow on Patrick's shoulder or hooking his arm around Patrick's neck when Patrick makes a joke. Those are big and visible moves that no one would bat an eyelid at. They don't feel intimate at all. He makes some very small ones too that he's fairly sure no one has noticed. Pete brushes his pinky finger against Patrick's when he picks up his wine glass, and he makes sure his knee touches off Patrick's leg now and then. Those are just for Patrick, to let him know that even amongst a table full of their friends, it's Patrick he's thinking about. He thinks Andy might have spotted them making heart-eyes at each other, but then again, Pete has been making heart-eyes at Patrick since the day they first met.

Conversation is easy for the evening. They talk about the tour, both high points and low points. They discuss upcoming rehearsals for getting back into the studio in the coming weeks as planned and all of the other things that the evening was designed to talk about. The mood is light, and everyone is in good spirits and Pete relaxes more and more.

The waitress splashes a drop of Pete's red wine on Patrick's shirt sleeve when she fills the glass. It's a tiny drop, it's an old shirt of Patrick's, and it was an accident. Pete knows Patrick won't care, he probably wouldn't even make a thing of it if she had knocked half a bottle of wine over him so long as it was an accident. Patrick's cheeks flush and the tips of his ears turn pink as she nearly falls over herself to try to clean the little patch of wine up. She blots a cloth over his forearm and apologises profusely and Patrick looks thoroughly relieved when she departs, still full of apologies, Pete loses count of how many times she says that she's sorry. Andy beams at Patrick like he's just waiting for him to realise that the waitress is happy to be all over him. Joe makes a joke about the next glass of wine probably ending up in Patrick's lap so that she can blot the wine from there too. Pete grins. Patrick ignores them all, and then kicks Pete under the table.

Despite Pete's protests about going to dinner, the food is divine in the end. Every mouthful tastes of heaven and sunshine to Pete as his belly starts to become full and satisfied. And that's just the first course. His attitude towards the stupid restaurant and the stupid dinner that stole his Patrick-time from him thaws a little. It's not so bad an evening. 

When the waitress returns to their table, she spends half her time right beside Patrick blushing wildly. Patrick is polite and friendly with her and smiles easily when she does. This is just fuel to the fire, both for her and for the guys at the table when she leaves again.

"Can you seriously not see it?" Andy says, disbelieving.  
"Nope. I don't see it!" Patrick seems to be sticking firmly with his stance on her absolutely not coming onto him. Pete feels the need to interject at this point.  
"Trick, it's true. She's so into you. She's refilled your water, like, seven hundred times. Believe me. She wants you." Patrick blushes hard and looks at Pete like he's a traitor. Earlier, when Pete had worried about he and Pete being rumbled, he had at one point come up with a cunning plan. If necessary, Pete thought that he would take a bullet for them and flirt shamelessly with someone, anyone, to throw their friends off. This is so much better.  
"You should go for it." Pete pushes. He's obviously not serious, and he's certain that Patrick will understand that, but maybe it will put the guys off their scent if anyone noticed Pete's oh-so-subtle Patrick touching.  
"Fine. Maybe I will." He seems pissed off, he says it through almost gritted teeth, so Pete drops it. He wasn't trying to put Patrick on the spot, just help him see that he's not the only one that finds him super sexy and amazing, and if it throws their friends off the scent of Pete feeling Patrick up under the table, then all the better. He knows the look that's in the waitress's eyes though, it's the same thing he feels when he looks at Patrick.

The next time she's passing, the waitress pointedly asks Patrick if everything is okay with their meal and if there's anything, absolutely anything, that she can do to make their evening better, to just let her know. Patrick actually smiles broadly and thanks her with a touch to her arm. He's all pleasantries and he blushes so hard that it might be a brand new shade of red, and Pete is sort of pleased that Patrick is playing along now. No one will suspect them and maybe Pete can manage a few cheeky gropes of Patrick's delicious thighs under the table without anyone catching on. It's still hard to see Patrick be so flustered from the attention from someone other than Pete. Pete has always found that difficult, but in the past he had to grow up and let Patrick flirt with whomever, because he and Patrick weren't a thing then, and he really had no right to be jealous. Now that they are together (or sort of together, they haven't really discussed the mechanics of it, though Pete is sure that he would do anything that Patrick asks of him), Pete maybe feels like he's justified feeling a tiny bit jealous, even if he set up the whole reason he's feeling jealous.

When the waitress moves on to the next table with a little wink at Patrick, he throws Pete a little smile and a shrug. Pete smiles back, weakly. This might have been Pete's idea, it doesn't mean it was a good idea.

By the time they have eaten their way through their main courses, they're all well fed and watered. Patrick heads to the bathroom and Pete sees the waitress stop him and corner him. No one from their table is watching them so maybe Patrick's flirting will be waisted. Except that for the poor waitress it's not waisted at all. He had forgotten that Patrick being so agreeable with her was actually leading her on. She obviously doesn't know that she's a diversion for the rest of the table.

Pete watches as Patrick chats with the waitress. She's very pretty, with long dark hair mostly pulled off her face in a pony tail, and enormous, sparkling green eyes. Her uniform of a white shirt and pencil skirt are unflattering, but do nothing to hide her slim figure. They face each other and they're standing close to one another. She mirrors his every gesture, a sure sign that she's interested in more that a waitress-customer relationship. She touches a hand to Patrick's arm as he says something seemingly amusing and she laughs along with him. She leans in close to him to reply something that appears to amuse him just as much and he laughs and ducks his head. They look like they really are flirting. Pete could actually imagine Patrick dating a girl like her and he can't help but feel the pang of jealousy that spikes in his gut. 

Pete feels like an imbecile. A possessive one. He blatantly told Patrick to go flirt with her and now he has to witness it. He doesn't like it one bit. 

He watches Patrick walk away from the waitress with a pat to her arm and a wide, genuine smile. Pete can't help himself. He gets up out of his chair and heads towards the restrooms after Patrick. He catches him just outside, and Patrick whirls around when Pete curls his hand around Patrick's forearm. 

"What was that all about?" Pete asks. He tries to sound casual, but Patrick knows him far to well.  
"I thought I was supposed to flirt? Didn't you tell me to go for it?" There's a note in Patrick's voice that Pete knows too. Patrick is pissed at Pete.  
"Yeah. But."  
"But?"  
"She was very flirty." Pete's still trying to keep the jealousy out of his voice. He knows he's failing. Badly.  
"So what if she was flirting with me? I thought that was the point? You wanted me to do that, right?" He raises his eyebrows in question.  
"Yes. But." Pete is starting to feel stupid.  
"But what?"  
Pete doesn't say anything. He wants to say that he's jealous, but he's sure Patrick already knows that, though.  
"Pete, you can't tell me to do something and then get mad when I do it. And you put me on the spot big time."  
"I'm sorry for throwing you under the bus. It was shitty. I promise il take one for the team next time. Il take them all for you, for us. But she was totally flirting with you, Patrick. Why don't you believe that?"  
Patrick looks at Pete dead in the face, his eyes are wide and his expression is serious. "Pete, it's not that I don't believe that the waitress has the hots for me, it's just that I don't care if she does. I want you. That's all. And for a lot longer that just the past six weeks. If you didn't know that already, you're an idiot."

Pete smiles and relief floods his body. He finally gets it. "Ok." He takes a quick glance down the corridor and when there's no one in the vicinity, he pushes Patrick back a step so that he hits the wall and kisses him hard and desperate. He needs to prove to Patrick exactly how happy he is that he's the one that Patrick wants. They kiss until Pete has to stop to take a breath. "I get it. I'm an idiot."  
Patrick rolls his eyes at Pete but smiles. "Yeah, I knew that already. But now you're my idiot."

Pete feels pride, and maybe some love, (ok, who is he kidding, it's totally love, it has been for such a long time) fill his chest at hearing that Patrick counts him as his. He's wanted to be Patrick's for as long as he can remember.

"And for the record, we weren't flirting. We were just talking. I told her I have a significant other." Pete maybe squeals with joy, but just a little bit.  
"Go back to the table Trick, I'll be back in a minute. We should leave soon though. Need to get you home. It's so past your bed time." Pete kisses Patrick again and guides his hand down Patrick's body to give his ass a firm squeeze. It's filled with promises of what's to come when he gets Patrick alone again.

"Dinner's not over yet. What about desert?" Patrick asks, and it's probably supposed to be an actual innocent question. Though Pete his learned that Patrick is a whole lot less innocent than he might let on, so maybe not. Pete smirks a dirty smile at him.  
"Oh, I've got desert for you right here, Trick." He coos and presses his hips to Patrick's to show just how much they need to get home, right the fuck now. Patrick exhales deeply against Pete's mouth and manages a smile.  
"And you think that's not going to alert the guys? That we both go missing and then I go back to the table with an enormous boner?"  
"Sorry." Pete would like nothing more than to take Patrick into the bathrooms and put that enormous boner to good use, along with his own erection that's only going to grow if he stays out here so close to Patrick. But he knows he can't. "Can't help myself. Just think of the refrigerator on the bus when Joe left that really shitty take-out in there for, like, a month. That can make any boner go away."

Patrick laughs and then makes a face, and Pete falls in love with him a little bit more. "Jesus. Yeah, that's a killer." He kisses Pete again quickly, just a little peck. "Follow me out."

Pete's face is fixed in a silly smile as he watches as Patrick's ass head down the corridor and around the corner. His silly smile stays in place while he pees and washes his hands. He grins at his reflection in the mirror and tries not to think about how he's so going to make out with Patrick in the cab back to his place. He's going to make Patrick blush so hard when he whispers filthy things to him in front of the driver. He has to concentrate very hard to get rid of his goofy smile and stop thinking about all of that so that it's gone by the time he's back to his seat. When he sits down the guys are back to ribbing Patrick. There a napkin being passed among them. Andy passes it to Pete, telling him that the waitress left it for Patrick. Pete studies it and throws a sideways glance to Patrick. Written in scrawled blue ink, is the message "If you change your mind", and it's followed by a number which is presumably the waitress's telephone number. It's a bold move on her part, and Pete is sort of impressed.

Pete blinks at the scribbled message and looks at Patrick. He can't help but smirk at him and Patrick looks sheepish. "Oh, Trick. She wants you so bad." He arches an eyebrow at him. This time there's no jealousy, he knows Patrick is going home with him. 

"Whatever." He narrows his eyes at Pete, like Pete's in trouble, but Pete knows he's just playing along now. He pockets the napkin, then his face lightens and he turns to the rest of the table. "I'm beat guys. Need to get to bed soon. Think I'll take off."

Pete's stomach flips hearing Patrick say he has to get to bed, he knows Patrick said that for his benefit. It will be Pete's bed, and there won't be much sleeping. Pete would like to fake a yawn to show he's tired too, but he knows he's a shitty actor. Best to play it simple. "Il grab a cab with you, Patrick. I've a ton of things to do at home tonight." Of course he's not going to explain that it's things to do with Patrick, to Patrick.

No one seems to care that they're leaving together. That's the best thing about being such close friends to begin with. They're joined at the hip anyway, just in a different way now.

When they get outside the building, they only have to wait a moment for a cab to arrive. Pete twitches, he wants to touch Patrick but they're still in public. The wine he's been drinking makes him brave, but not that brave. Not yet. They pile into the car and Pete wastes no time curling his fingers between Patrick's and pressing himself up against Patrick's side.

"Brazen waitress. I'd sort of like her style, if she wasn't trying to steal my man away," Pete grins.  
"She wasn't trying to steal me, Pete. The number on the napkin is the number of the restaurant. I asked her to do that." Patrick smiles at him. And, wow. Pete's eyes go wide and he's a little bit taken aback.  
"You are an actual cunning genius. Didn't know you had it in you."  
"Did you think that I could know you this long and not pick up some tips?"

Pete laughs and kisses him. He tries his best to keep kissing Patrick, to make him giggle and blush on the way back to his place. Patrick bats his hand away when Pete sneaks his fingers in under Patrick's shirt and then into the waistband of Patrick's jeans. They sit in silence the rest of the way home, both grinning like idiots, fingers interlocked in the darkness.

Patrick let's Pete press him up against the door to his place and kiss him messily while Pete fumbles with the key and lock, one-handed. 

"Jesus, Pete." Patrick breathes against Pete's mouth. "Not on the doorstep."  
"Then get the fuck inside." Pete grins, and then turns Patrick and marches him inside the house, pressing his front to Patrick's back to walk behind him. "Already told you it was past your bed time."


End file.
